Three games, three wins as hockey team now ranked No. 2 in West
The Utah State hockey team improved their winning streak to 10 games this weekend with wins against the Metro State Roadrunners, the Weber State Wildcats and the University of Utah Utes. They are now 19-2 for the season, ranking No. 2 in the ACHA Division II West rankings after this week’s play.
The Aggies came out ready for a win against Metro State on Thursday night and scored in the first 3:21 of the game with a goal from Billy Gouthro. Three minutes later, Metro State scored as well and it looked like Utah State would have to fight hard for the win.
The Aggies then responded with five more goals and ended the first period up 6-1. After the first period the intensity of both teams tapered off but the Aggies’ lead did not. They scored three total goals to Metro State’s one in the last two periods to dominate the Roadrunners 9-2. Forward Joel Basson was the best player on the ice and received first star honors for his two-goal performance for Utah State.
Despite the lopsided win, head coach Jon Eccles wasn’t about to overlook Metro State. “They don’t have lot of depth, but there are times in years past where they’ve beaten us here … Every team we play we have to think that it is a team that can beat us and we have to go out and play our best.”
A very strange thing occurred in the second period as the referees halted play and started conversing with the scorekeeper. After much confusion in the stands as well as on the ice, the referee blew it dead and ended the period more than three minutes early. The public address announcer informed the crowd of what was happening and said he had never seen anything like it in 25 years.
“The time keeper, the person doing the score sheet and the referee weren’t communicating very well and the referee decided to blow it dead, figure it out and add the time to the third period … it was new to us,” Eccles said of the occurrence.
Weber State came to town Friday night and Utah State was determined to win. They did it through the stick of left wing Brendan MacDonald and the glove of goalie Cody Palmer. They did so without the help Brandon Blauer and Chase Allington, who were both disqualified from the game because of tripping and fighting, respectively, in the game against Metro State. MacDonald played a great game and had a hat trick, his first this season, and two assists to gain first star honors and lead the Aggies to a 6-0 win. After his third goal in the second period, the crowd responded to his hat trick by throwing their hats down onto the ice.
“It was awesome, congratulations to him, we certainly enjoyed it,” Palmer said. Two of MacDonald’s goals came in the first period just 15 seconds apart from each other. Also adding to the win were Logan Huppert, Jay McFadden and Jason Moore, with a goal by each player.
“The whole team played well and especially my line-mates, they opened up a lot of ice for me,” MacDonald said.
Palmer kept the Wildcats off the scoreboard with 21 saves for the Aggies. In the last two games against Weber, the Wildcats put four in the net each game, so it was a definite improvement for the team.
“Cody is probably the hardest-working player on our team day in and day out … You can’t give that guy enough credit, he always shows up to play,” MacDonald said.
With 12 penalties by Utah State, there were times that the Aggies were down a man or two. That didn’t stop Palmer from keeping out every shot Weber sent toward his net. His 21 saves gained second star honors, but Palmer wasn’t about to take all the credit and recognized the effort of his defenders.
“They made it possible, it’s their shutout too,” Palmer said.
The Aggies went to the University of Utah on Saturday. Utah State came out and played decently the first period, taking a few penalties, but still were up 3-1 at the end of the period. The second period is where the Aggies came out and played with intensity, speed and skill, scoring six more goals on the Utes’ one to go up 9-2 after the second period.
“We came out and picked up our intensity, puck control, and worked well together as a unit and pushed them as hard as we could and got six goals in the second period,” Eccles said.
The Aggies kept up the pressure and intensity and scored three more times to end with a 12-2 win in Salt Lake. The leading Aggies were McFadden, Gouthro and Matt Hamilton, who each netted two goals.
Utah State will play No. 5 Colorado University this Thursday, No. 4 San Jose State University this Friday, and No. 3 Eastern Washington University Saturday. Each of those games will be at the Eccles Ice Center.
The Aggies will need to play their best this week to improve their 19-2 record to 22-2.
“We have to run our system and play 60 minutes of hockey and we should be able to beat them,” Eccles said.
– j.mill@aggiemail.usu.edu